Ahead of what will surely be a heated election year, Twitter appears to be embracing political advertising. To lead the effort, Twitter has poached a top political marketing executive from Google, reports Politico, adding that it makes sense for Twitter to capitalize on its status as a hub of the national political conversation. "We've had five years to watch and observe how people are using the platform organically and we know politicians are active on the platform, and we know that consumers enjoy the messages from those politicians," Twitter's president of global revenue, Adam Bain, tells Politico. "We're …

Fear not, all you believers in a competitive search marketplace. Microsoft has a plan to save Bing. How? By "reorganizing the Web," Qi Lu, Microsoft's president of online services, said during a financial analyst meeting last week. "To do that, Microsoft plans to leverage its network of products and partnerships to gain a better understanding of what the user is after when they enter a query into a Bing search box," explains CNNMoney.com. "Ultimately, Microsoft believes its technical secret sauce will let Bing both expand what is 'searchable' and deliver more robust search results than any of its …

Responding to readers' increasingly social habits, The Wall Street Journal has launched a new platform that filters content through the so-called social graph and lives entirely within Facebook. Regarding WSJ Social, "the fundamental idea of it is super simple," Alisa Bowen, general manager of the WSJ Digital Network, tells Forbes. "It's about making [WSJ content] available where people are." According to Forbes, "It's also about reimagining newspaper reading as an inherently social experience." On the new platform, visitors choose streams they want to follow -- from those produced by the paper's editors to friends' streams -- which then appear …

After establishing a number of ecommerce verticals -- including Soap.com, for health and beauty products, and Wag.com for pet supplies -- Amazon-owned Quidsi just got into the toy business. ("Took you long enough!" we imagine kids saying.) YoYo, at yoyo.com, just debuted with some 20,000 toys, video games, books and other kid-appropriate products. Quidsi has already had success in other verticals. "It's been quite good at what it does," Softpedia writes. "So much so that Amazon was forced to acquire the company [for $545 million last November], after putting some pricing pressure on it since Amazon carried some …

Addressing persistent privacy concerns, Foursquare is in the process of rolling out a new option to prevent users from inadvertently sharing home addresses with strangers. "The update ... enables the user to designate a Foursquare locale as a private residence by selecting 'Home' as the venue's primary category," reports Mashable. Applying the "Home" category will apparently keep the actual address of the venue private to just users and their friends, while also letting user edit the venue or delete it altogether. "Doing this will ensure that only you and your friends can see the address on the venue …

What has huge name recognition, tons of potential, but -- at least in its current state -- the chilly feel of a ghost town? Google+, says PBS.org contributor Dan Reimold. "As it stands, my Circles are sparse," writes Reimold, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Tampa, and blogger. Just one man's opinion, sure, but he's not the only one calling Google+ barren. As Reimold notes, it was actually Omaha World-Herald columnist Rainbow Russell who recently said: "It's a not-vicious-enough-to-be-interesting circle: Nobody posts on Google+ because nobody posts on Google+. My Google+ home page is worse …

The Facebook "app economy" has added at least 182,000 new jobs and contributed more than $12.19 billion in wages and benefits to the U.S. economy this year. That's according to new research from University of Maryland, which using more aggressive estimates, suggests that Facebook's app economy created a total of 235,644 jobs, adding a value of $15.71 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011. The study, as TechCrunch notes, evaluated jobs created in the app industry -- direct employment -- jobs created in other sectors of the economy from Facebook's ecosystem -- indirect employment -- and the economic value of …

According to new data from deal aggregator Yipit, nearly one-third of all U.S. daily-deal sites (170 out of 530) have shut down or been sold so far this year. The exception to the trend, One Kings Lane on Monday said it raised $40 million in a Series C round of funding led by new investor Tiger Global Management, along with Institutional Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Greylock Partners. One Kings Lane -- "One of my favorite home décor flash sale sites, writes Vator News' Faith Merino -- already raised a $23 million Series B round …

On rumors that Google is ready to release its Wallet service, analysts are asking what it means for the search giant, other mobile payment services, and the future of local commerce in general. Not much, suggests Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling -- at least initially. That's because, for now, only a small group of consumers will have access to Google Wallet. "There are only a handful of merchant and retail partners and only one handset currently [near field communication]-enabled,'' Sterling notes. Still, the debut has weighty symbolic implications, according to Sterling. "Because of Google's brand clout and visibility …

Brace yourself for a boozier Facebook. The social network and Diageo have entered into a "multimillion-dollar" advertising partnership, the Financial Times reports, calling it, "the latest move by the social networking website to form closer ties with marketers." Per the deal, Diageo is expected to work closely with Facebook on ways to better market such beverage brands as Smirnoff and Guinness to customers. "Diageo is particularly keen to tap Facebook's large audience in emerging markets such as Brazil, where the two companies occupy the same office building in Sao Paolo," FT.com points out. For more than a year, …